Mirometrica

Since 2003, MiroMetrica has been helping organizations develop targeted CRM strategies aimed at specific outcomes and then implement the programs. MiroMetrica's specialty is in helping organizations communicate with their customers, and more importantly allow customers to communicate back to them. They are then able to set up customer care processes that take the raw data embedded in these communications and extract information that helps drive decisions all the way up and down the value chain.

The Challenge

One of the core tenets of good CRM is remembering the "customer base" is not a huge entity but is made up of individuals, with their own preferences and points of view. Many of these preferences become visible when behavioral data is analyzed telling you what you need to know about your current offering. What it doesn’t tell you is what customers wish you were offering.

Online surveys are the most popular method used for this type of information-gathering. Like many CRM specialists, MiroMetrica often used them. But, one client asked MiroMetrica to supplement the online survey with a mailing that allowed people to fax their answers back. Pavla Selepova, President and CEO of MiroMetrica was willing to accommodate this request, but it raised two big concerns from an operational standpoint. The first was that a sudden onslaught of survey returns could tie up an office phone line for hours at a time, preventing clients from getting through and employees from calling out. Unacceptable for a business that prides itself on helping organizations improve customer service. The second problem was with the inbound faxes themselves. Only one fax could come in at a time, which meant if anyone else was trying to fax a survey at the same time they would get a busy signal and have to try again. The likelihood of customers re-sending decreased with each missed connection, so fewer people would answer, and important feedback would be lost.Knowing receiving a larger number of surveys would make the conclusions more statistically valid, Selepova began looking for an alternative to the fax machine that would solve these problems.

The Solution

Selepova was familiar with Internet faxing, and she knew the people at MyFax so she set up a trial account and included the fax number in the next survey. The difference was immediate. "The faxed surveys began arriving in groups rather than one at a time and because they came in as attachments to an e-mail rather than paper documents we were able to organize, analyze, and forward the aggregated results much faster than we had before. I was surprised at how quickly we received them too. It made us much more efficient."

Another immediate advantage Selepova gained was being able to conduct other business over the telephone while the faxes were arriving. Once faxes had been processed they could be stored electronically with password protection rather than under lock and key in a filing cabinet. In addition, if anyone needed to reference the original surveys they could do so from their desktop rather than having to rifle through paper files.

Having a toll free fax number was another important benefit for Selepova. She says it helps encourage more survey participation since there's no cost to the person faxing it. And, of course, having a toll free number gives the company the appearance of being a much larger organization.

The Results

Selepova has seen both hard and soft operational improvements since she began using MyFax. She reports her organization has achieved a 30% increase in efficiency to receive, sort, and catalog data, which correlates to a 30% decrease in costs for this portion of the project. She also points to a 20% decrease in project turnaround time. In addition, Selepova says they have reduced the costs for paper and toner to virtually zero dollars since inbound faxes all come in through MyFax. For Selepova, MyFax has been a tremendous business tool and one that fits with her philosophy of customer service. She is happy to be able to practice what she preaches.

"We don't have an internal IT staff here. That's a function I outsource, so every time I want to make a change it can be costly. With MyFax I was able to do it all myself online."Pavla Selepova, President and CEO, MiroMetrica

"We have reduced the costs for paper and toner to virtually zero dollars since inbound faxes all come in through the MyFax account."